A final decision on whether the world’s largest civilian aircraft, Airbus A-380, should be allowed to operate regular scheduled flights into India will be taken by the Ministry of Civil Aviation after discussions with domestic airlines.
No time frame has yet been fixed on when a decision will be taken, senior Ministry officials said, after an internal meeting here on Wednesday. The meeting was called to discuss whether to allow the double-deck aircraft, which can seat as many as 525 passengers, to operate regular scheduled flights into India.
Several airlines, including Singapore Airlines, Dubai-based Emirates and Germany’s Lufthansa, are keen to bring the aircraft into India, but are currently prevented by the Indian rules.
The Government has all along maintained that allowing the A-380 into the country will see foreign airlines take away a large chunk of international traffic and, therefore, will be detrimental to the interests of domestic carriers such as Jet Airways and Air India. Kingfisher Airlines, which ceased operations over a year ago, is the only Indian carrier to have ordered the Airbus A-380.
Explaining the rationale behind the change in the Government’s thinking, a senior official has said putting restrictions on what aircraft an airline is allowed to operate goes against the spirit of liberalisation, which the Government is keen to push.
The Ministry, however, proposes to take certain precautionary measures. One such measure is to ensure that only airlines from those countries with which India has bilateral air services agreements (ASA) based on the number of seats rather than the frequency of flights are given the nod to operate A-380s.
Air services bilaterals lay down the number of flights an international airline can fly into India a week, as well as the weekly number of flights an Indian carrier can operate in that country. The ASA can either stipulate the number of seats an international airline is allowed to fly in and out of India a week, as is the case with Dubai and Singapore, or the number of flights a carrier can operate a week, as is the deal with Russia.
Officials say allowing international airlines from countries with which India has signed ASAs based on seats would ensure that the Indian market is not dominated by any foreign airline.